As the hopper nears the rendezvous point, Mensah and Murderbot scan the area and discover that the GrayCris team consists of 30-40 individuals. Mensah contacts them and tells them that they have the data that GrayCris’s wants and will transmit it to the main ship when it arrives. After confirming their response, she sends Murderbot to discuss terms with GrayCris.

There are four SecUnits and three humans at the site, each wearing a green, blue, or yellow uniform. When Murderbot arrives, they try to remotely install another combat module into it, but they fail due to Murderbot’s hacked governor module. Murderbot expands but does not use its arm weapons; the GrayCris members are shocked that Murderbot is not immobilized. They are even more shocked when Murderbot begins to negotiate with them. GrayCris has never met a construct that has its own will, and both the humans and SecUnits are flustered.

Murderbot tells Blue Leader it has gone rogue and wants them to take it on its ship listed as destroyed inventory in exchange for the data. To transmit the data, they will have to reactivate their HubSystem. Blue Leader confers with Yellow Leader, and they agree. Murderbot informs them that it has sent one of their engineers, an augmented human, to trigger their emergency beacon.